Behind the Scenes Photo Essay
On Sunday, with less than 48 hours before the event was to open, it was hard to believe that the showroom floor, keynote theatre and campuses would ever be ready to receive 11,000 visitors. The whirr of electric power tools drowned out all conversation, the floors were covered in plastic and most of the exhibits, like the Design Thinking exhibt, (below) were empty.
We found the Global Sponsorship team reviewing a promotional video, editing in last minute changes. Notice the bare walls and garage style ambient. No one was concerned! “We’re in good shape!” they said of the event.
The McLaren race car, sure to draw lots of attention and visitors, was stilll under wraps.
In the keynote theatre, the production team was rehearsing the storyboard for the keynote presentations.
Today, more of the event staff arrive and trade stories of lost luggage or rerouted flights. Here, the DACH marketing team shoots a promotional video for their “40 Years of Inspiration” display, a homage to SAP’s four decades of innovation in the IT industry.
In one corner of the event space (said to be the size of 20 European football fields), Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Becher welcomes his team to the event at an onsite meeting. Only four percent of SAP employees attend SAPPHIRE NOW so he urged us all to act as ambassadors at all times.
And McLaren unveils the kimono:
This was a great idea for a blog post! It helps those of us who had to stay home feel like we're really there....wish you could find a way to do a "sangria essay" where we could sip along....the internet has not yet evolved that far, I suppose.